Talk to most NHL players about Max Lapierre and they’ll have the same reaction Dale Weise did.
“I knew his rep and didn’t like it,” Weise said after playing a few games with Lapierre.
“But he is a lot better than a fourth-line centre,” Weise said. “This guy has some great skill. I think he’s a great player. He can shoot the puck. He can make great plays and he’s already got in two scraps, so he’s fighting his own battles.”
He’s actually been in three fights, if you include the preseason finale. Players notice things like that. Fans do too. In Vancouver, they were chanting “Lappy,” Lappy” when he got into that preseason fight with Theo Peckham.
When he heard that, Kevin Bieksa recalls, he felt like a “proud papa” for his role in Lapierre’s turnaround.
“For them to be chanting ‘Lappy,’ it gave me goosebumps,” Bieksa explained.
That’s quite a change for Bieksa who admitted he wasn’t exactly a Lapierre fan before the centre got to Vancouver.
“My impression was much like everyone else’s, I didn’t like him,” Bieksa said. “I’d go after him when I could. But when you meet him, he’s the most team-oriented guy you will ever meet. He wants to win more than anyone. He’s very selfless. He’ll do whatever it takes.
“He had a great playoffs for us last year but he took a little bit of heat over the summer for some of his actions. He comes back this year, and now he’s standing up to people. He’s already got three fights under his belt.”
Bieksa was one of the few Canucks Lapierre consulted, looking for tips this offseason on how to fight. Holding his own against Peckham is a good indication it’s paid off.
“I think you have to respect a guy like that,” Bieksa said. “The knock on him before was that he’d skate away and now, he’s going to stand up for himself and his teammates. On top of that, this guy is a great hockey player.
“He can make plays, he can protect the puck. He had five breakaways the other night and I joked around I could have been back to even on the plus-minus if he scored on them all.”

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